Designing Accessible Maternal Mental Health Services
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Designing Accessible Maternal Mental Health Services: The MaMS Study
IRAS ID
304315
Contact name
Judith Rankin
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Newcastle University
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 11 months, 30 days
Research summary
Mental health support can be offered to women accessing maternal health services. Providing such support for women of child-bearing age has the potential to reduce future maternal mental health distress arising from or related to the birthing experience; and increase the number of women seeking mental health support at an earlier stage, before they reach crisis point. However, maternal health services are frequently not accessed by certain groups of women, such as those living with the effects of socioeconomic deprivation (i.e women who are experiencing physical, social, material, financial or cultural barriers which may limit their opportunities or ability to access maternity and mental health services e.g. on the basis of their ethnicity, religion, health or residential status).
It is unclear why these women struggle to access timely mental health services; and yet, they may often be most in need of such support. In addition, the move to remote health care service provision as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic may mean that certain women, particularly those who are living with the effects of income deprivation are digitally excluded, thereby further reducing their access to services.
Women who are currently under-represented in applied health research such as those experiencing physical, social, cultural or material disadvantage as a result of individual, environmental or social restrictions, are often termed 'hard-to-reach' because they do not frequently access statutory healthcare services. Categorising women as such overlooks the likelihood that there are services (e.g. schools, community and voluntary services, local authority services, or social services) that they do access, and suggests a need for more creative approaches to reach these women. This study will help identify means by which maternal and mental healthcare services can reach women who do not frequently access statutory healthcare services, and strategies from non-healthcare service providers which can improve access for these women.
REC name
South Central - Hampshire B Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
22/SC/0015
Date of REC Opinion
2 Feb 2022
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion